Feet First

This is one of Lloyd's first talkies and might have played better as a silent, since most of the action revolves around a whole bunch of amusing sight gags.

He's a hapless shoe salesman who tells a wealthy girl that he's a tycoon and spends the rest of the film trying to impress her after unable to leave a cruise ship before it takes off. All of the shipboard scenes are amusing but become repetitious after the first twenty minutes. Highlight of the humor is Lloyd's interaction with sailor Noah Young, adept at playing a dummy.

Silly plot manipulations end up with Lloyd getting stuck inside a mailbag and somehow hoisted up the side of a building on a flimsy scaffold. It's here that the film reminds one of the silent success he had with his skyscraper routine. Although the gags are inventive and foolish enough, it's an extended sequence that plays out over too much running time. WILLIE BEST is seen as a black maintenance man who's no help at all to Lloyd when he becomes aware of his plight. It's the kind of stereotyped role that makes today's politically correct audiences squirm.

Summing up: Funny in spots, but certainly not one of Lloyd's best efforts. The scaffolding gags look painfully real.